India trail 1-2 against England in the ongoing five-match Test series after losing the Lord's Test by a narrow margin of 22 runs. To win the series from this point, the side needs to win both the remaining matches. What adds to India's trouble is the fact that their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah's availability is not certain. Bumrah, who played the first and third game, missed the second match as a part of workload management. Ahead of the England series, Indian cricket team chief selectors Ajit Agarkar had already mentioned that Bumrah would not be available for all the five matches.
While reacting to Bumrah's case, former India player Dilip Vengsarkar said that players need to play all the matches of the series and there should be no "personal preference".
"I'm not in favour of bowlers picking and choosing Test matches. If you're fit and available, you should play all the matches for your country. Bumrah is a world-class bowler, and he can win matches for India. But once you're on tour, you need to play every match. There's no question of selecting matches based on personal preference," Vengsarkar told RevSportz.
The idea to give Bumrah rest in between the series comes up after the pacer got injured while playing all the five Tests in Australia in 2024-25. The injury led to the pacer missing competitive cricket for three months.
"What is important is playing for India and if you are unfit, then don't play at all. He had a gap of almost 7-8 days after the first Test match, but still was not included for the second Test which was not acceptable. Maybe it was acceptable for Agarkar and Gambhir," said Vengsarkar.
Talking about the Test series, India lost the opening game by 5 wickets in Leeds before the side bounced back with a 336-run victory in Birmingham. The third game was truly a nail-biter that saw England winning by a narrow margin and getting back to lead in the series once again.